Lydford - August 2002
Devon

  August 2002 saw us heading down to Devon to combine a long weekend with a visit to see Howard & Sue in their new house near Tavistock. It was a long haul down there on a warm evening after being at work for the day so it was good to find a decent campsite and a nearby pub as rewards. We had a good weekend and it was great to see Howard and Sue again.

  It's amazing how much stuff you can get in a tent these days and still have room for a couple of people. This is our latest acquisition, a large tunnel tent bought at York Cycle Rally in 2001, and great fun was had getting it home on the back of a tandem. It's seen here on the Camping and Caravanning Club campsite at Lydford in Devon.

  It's a good campsite with reasonable facilities and not far to walk to the pub on an evening. Being next to the water tap meant we got lots of company and the slope behind the tent was a bit exciting if you got out of bed in the middle of the night!

  Mostly the weather was pretty good and we got some good cycling across Dartmoor. For a bit of variety, we spent part of one day walking around the local attraction of Lydford Gorge. It's quite spectacular, very popular, and a good pace to buy ice cream after you've finished the walk. This is White Lady Falls, if we'd taken a bit more notice, we might be able to explain how it got the name.

  Dartmoor is a great place for mountain biking, we borrowed some routes from Mountain Bike Rider magazine and headed off. The weather stayed kind, although the distance proved a bit too much as the going was quite tough. Good riding though, and the views were great. This is taken at (or is it of ?) Kings Torr near Princetown.

  Towards the end of the day, dark clouds gathered and we got a strange amount of pleasure watching all of the walkers heading towards the clouds, whilst we cycled away from them. However, the best sight by this point was this view back down into Princetown, a nice finish to a good ride.

  The highlight of the next ride was the number of rivers we had to cross, always by stepping stones although not always easily. However, at the time this picture was taken, we were blissfully unaware of what was to come, it was pleasant to relax by the side of the River West Dart and enjoy the sunshine.

  This was probably the easiest set of stones to get across, big and not too far apart. Most of the others were slippery, nearly under water, or much further apart. At one crossing it was just easier to get the shoes and socks off and do some wading, much to the amusement of nearby families out for a picnic. Hers's Karen, waiting for Dave to finish messing about with the camera and come back to help with getting her bike across the River Swincombe.

Pictures and text are copyright © Dave & Karen Petty- All Rights Reserved, please don't copy anything without our permission. Thanks, D & K.